Now, with that cleared up, I didn't love the trailer.
Don't get me wrong, there's a lot to love here. The first thing I want to touch on is how gorgeous everything looks: shots are composed beautifully, lighting and atmosphere of the shots feel powerful, and the locations feel like, for the first time, genuinely new Star Wars locations. A salt desert-like vista, ridges of rock within the water, and a burning desert are all strikingly unique-looking. The set pieces are surely to be nothing short of magnificent, and could possibly surpass those of Rogue One.
And you can't go wrong with seeing fan favorite characters, both old and new. One of the things that did frustrate me about The Force Awakens, despite how much I loved it, was that Rey's rapid growth from survivor to force-wielder seemed unnatural. I understand that the adrenaline could jump-start her systems, so to speak, but the way it was done (however cool) felt slightly disingenuous to the mythos of Star Wars; hell, even Anakin couldn't use the force so directly until he had some training. But it looks like I'm going to get what I want out of Rey in The Last Jedi, which is her being put through the ropes by Luke Skywalker.
Speaking of Luke, he's obviously the one I'm most interested to see in the new movie. The fact that he's not only adopted the hermit persona, but has gone so far to believe that the Jedi should die off, is a complete left turn from what I thought the direction would be for his character. It's understandable, considering the shit he's seen; it's easy to lose faith when you're on your own, putting your heart and soul into an organization, and that same energy turns against you. And while I don't believe that he'll stay that way for the entirety of the film (or even it's sequel), this arc is something I'm looking forward to.
Another arc I'm looking forward to seeing is that of Kylo Ren. Killing your dad (spoiler alert!) isn't something you walk away from so easily. So, what does he do now? Does he complete his dark side training with his master, Supreme Leader Snoke? Is he still conflicted by his connection to the light? We didn't get too many hints of what he's up to, but I'm excited nonetheless.And y'know what, this is where I'm going to take time and complain again. We barely got anything new out of this trailer. I wasn't expecting a synopsis, necessarily, but I am starting to get frustrated with the secrecy that Lucasfilm likes to use when approaching this new trilogy of films. I had assumed it was just a one-time thing with The Force Awakens, but now it's clear that this will be the norm for their advertising. I don't have a huge, huge problem with it - knowing barely anything when walking into The Force Awakens made it all the more fun - but as a greedy fan, I feel like there was at least one or two better 'buzz' moments to keep me talking about the trailer than there were.
Because not only were there barely any narrative details to learn, we didn't see anything outside of the 'force characters.' Barely any Finn, Poe, BB-8, and Leia; not a single shot of Chewie or R2 or C-3P0. And I can tell that this film's focus is an exact mirror of what The Force Awakens was: more force stuff, less Resistance stuff (not dissimilar to The Empire Strikes Back, the second part of the previous trilogy). I'm down for more Jedi-Sith action, it's what I watch Star Wars for anyways, but I do enjoy seeing those characters in action.
Again, I recognize that this is a teaser, and that I'm being kind of selfish for complaining about a luxury film I will see during the holiday season that I observe, but I'm nonetheless excited to see what comes from this film.
Oh yeah, and I guess Captain Phasma is back, too.
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